that the more we struggle for life (as pleasure), the more we are actually killing what we love. - Alan Watts

[L]ife and death are in conflict only in the mind which creates a war between them out of its own desires and fears. In fact life and death are not opposed but complementary, being the two essential factors of a greater life that is made up of living and dying just as melody is produced by the sounding and silencing of individual notes.

[P]eace can be made only by those who are peaceful, and love can be shown only by those who love.
No work of love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.

What we have to discover is that there is no safety, that seeking is painful, and that when we imagine that we have found it, we don’t like it.